24 April 2016

 Sofi taught the Young Women in our ward how to do the crayon art project she did at home a few weeks ago.  She made herself a new canvas.  This one shows Voldemort and Harry Potter dueling with their wands.

Abe and a partner competed in a debate during class on Thursday.  His team argued for freedom of speech and won.  They dressed for success with white shirts, matching bowties and suspenders.  This is a photo of Abe ironing his shirt before school.

 Abe's math team participated in the district wide Pentagames on Friday.  He came home with a wide assortment of awards.  Abe won 3rd place overall for 7th graders (trophy), his 7th grade team won 1st place (blue ribbon with medal) and his school won 3rd place (pink ribbon).  The other ribbons are for individual events.  Abe is also holding a pencil that has the words "Wooden Handheld Calculator" printed on it.

 Gibson has invented a new superhero: Business Man.  Business Man does stunts while wearing nice clothes.

 Becky tried to make Helen and Sofi matching dresses for Easter.  Sofi was out of town, however, and Becky guessed wrong on her size.  Sofi's dress ended up at least a size too small.  She had enough fabric to try again and finished the dress this week.  Helen will grow into the third dress in a couple of years.  

Here's a photo of the two beauties in their matching dresses.  

Finally, a shout out to this man!  After working a 50+ hour week, Brandan drove to Abe's scout campout and spent a rainy night with the troop.  Then he drove a van of boys from the campout to their soccer games where he coached a double header.  The rest of the weekend has been spent finishing paperwork, taking calls for work, spending time with family and fulfilling church responsibilities.  We love Brandan!

17 April 2016

Helen, Gibson and Abe all successfully completed their piano syllabus on Saturday.  They've each worked for several months to learn 3 songs to present along with a variety of music theory.  Abe passed level 5, Helen passed level 4 and Gib passed level 1.  We stopped at Dairy Queen after their adjudications to celebrate.

Helen, Gibson and Abe have been playing three person baseball in the backyard this week.  One person pitches, one person hits and runs the bases and the third person shoots baskets on the patio while they wait for a turn.

Here's Abe at his turn at bat.

10 April 2016

Our home teacher, Andy, invited us over to see the 1956 Ford truck he's sanding down to prepare for a new paint job.  The truck will be shiny red when it's done.  Although the body of the truck is old, Andy replaced its original engine with one out of a Camaro.  He also put in power steering and brakes so it's more fun to drive.

Sofi's international class created posters to show similarities common to cultures around the world.  The teachers chose the best posters to enlarge and hang in the school.  Sofi chose the theme "We all tell stories" and used examples from six continents.

Our family woke up early Saturday morning to run the 5K Pear Blossom together.  Besides the 7 am start time for the race, it was a great way to begin the day.  We all got medals in honor of the 40th anniversary of the race.

After the 5K, Brandan took the kids to breakfast while Becky ran the 10 mile race.  Here she is at the end of the race looking much sweatier.  She got a second medal identical to the first.

Helen moved up to the advanced group for Siskiyou Violins this spring.  They played two concerts this week: once for a rather posh retirement community whose residents donate money to the group and once at a community concert held at a local church.  This photo was taken at the second concert while the group warmed up.

This is a photo of Helen with her violin teacher, Faina, who is also the director of Siskiyou Violins.  

Abe invited some friends over Saturday night for dinner, games and a movie to celebrate his birthday.  Saturday was also the first day of spring soccer games so some of the kids, including Abe, are still wearing their uniforms.  Clockwise from Abe are Spencer, Ashton (elbows only), Jake, Camden, Malakai and Becky.  The boys are making brownie sundaes and getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday".

3 April 2016

Last fall a friend gave us a box of unwanted tulips bulbs.  Helen and her friend, Paige, helped Becky plant them along our garage.  We're enjoying the beautiful mix of tulips that have bloomed this month.

Sofi applied for the Eccles scholarship at the University of Utah this February.  She received an email earlier in March requesting an interview.  Since we live in Oregon, they were willing to interview her on Skype.  Becky and Brandan listened in quietly and Brandan took a photo without Sofi noticing.  Sofi got a phone call on Friday letting her know she won the scholarship!  The scholarship is an amazing opportunity.  Besides full tuition, room and board and a stipend for books, she'll receive special programming and support through the Honors college including mentorships for graduate school.  We can't wait to see what she does!

 Thanks to spring soccer starting a week late, our family enjoyed the entire General Conference live. We've reveled in our long weekend.  On Saturday, Brandan listened to conference outside while he cut dovetails on a jewelry box he is building for Sofi.

Our kids have been using a lego stop motion app to make movies this weekend.  The free app lets them add music and special effects to their movies.  Their longest movie is about 30 seconds long.  They're pretty cute to watch.  Abe built a stand to hold their iPhone so the photos line up from frame to frame.

This is a photo of Sofi taking a nap in-between conference sessions.  We loved all of conference.  Favorite talks include Elder Kearon, Elder Gong, both of Elder Uchtdorf's talks and a special shout out to Elder Holland for his awesome dinosaur visual.

Brandan and Abe went with a group of deacons and dads to see Batman V. Superman after the priesthood session of conference.  The 3D glasses for the movie reminded everyone of Clark Kent.  They also coordinated their movie dress code -- collar up, sleeves rolled, one side untucked.  In the photo are Spencer, Malakai, Tate, Abe, Carter, Ashton and Jake.

Today was Abe's birthday.  Helen baked Abe a special birthday cookie while he was gone on Saturday night.  Abe popped the lenses out of his 3D glasses and has worn them all day, especially for photos.

 Helen saved some of the delicious cookie dough for him to eat.  Abe invented a new breakfast-- cookie dough crepes.

 Abe got a slackline for his birthday.  He and Brandan set up the slackline between our mimosa and maple trees.

 Abe, Helen and Gibson spent much of the afternoon outside learning to walk on the slackline.  They can each balance for several steps.

 The slackline has pictures of gibbon monkeys on it.  Gibson likes that gibbon is only one letter different from his name.  This is a photo of Gibson doing his signature gibbon move-- jumping from the slackline, grabbing a rope and swinging down.

 Here's Abe blowing out the candles on his cake-- 13!

 Abe liked Helen's rainbow cake and asked for a shorter version of it.  Abe is a great kid-- creative, quick, hard working.  We're proud of the skills he's developed this year in math, Chinese and as a great cook.